5050 BMX King Of The Mountain Dirt Contest @ Powder Mountain 08.20

Kyle Baldock came all the way from Australia to take Best Trick. Photo: Katie Panzer

For the third year in a row, motocross fans from across the country flocked to Powder Mountain Resort for the Powder Mountain Motocross event. This year, 5050 BMX was on site with some of the best BMX dirt jumpers from around the world for their first annual King Of The Mountain dirt contest, a few of them from our very own state of Utah.The riders competed in a number of different categories including Best Turndown, Best Tabletop, Sweetest 360, Best Style, High Air and the highest honors going to the winner of Best Trick. Up for grabs was $500, an Ogio Bag, a custom-fitted ring made by Incus and a carved wooden trophy for each category. The Best Trick winner also won a whopping $3,500.

It was a beautiful 70 degrees up in the mountains and the riders were warming up as a large crowd began to accumulate around the jump. Legendary pro-BMX riders, Mike Aiken and Matt Beringer were on site to help judge the contest. Things started off with Best Turndown, a trick that involves tweaking the bike in mid-air with the handlebars being twisted in the opposite direction the bike is being tweaked. Brandon Dosch took that category incorporating an extremely stylish 360 into his turndown.

Chris Hughes had multiple attempts at a body varial and cliffhanger back flip, eventually landing the cliffhanger and receiving enormous applause from the crowd. Hughes won the Best Tabletop category, a trick similar to a turndown.

Patrick Casey stomped multiple 360 variations including an inverted 360 and a cork 360 tail whip and won the Sweetest 360 category with a slow and steezy cork 360.

Utah local, Jayson Johnson, kept up the pace and threw down enough stylish maneuvers to land the Best Style award.

Mike “Hucker” Clark launched himself to the moon and landed as the High Air winner after also stomping a cork 720, one-footed cork 360 and a double back flip.

When it came down to Best Trick, there were a number of valid contenders from Colton Satterfield’s no-handed 360 back flip, Casey’s back flip 360 double tail whip to Hucker’s double back flip; but in the end, Australian rider, Kyle Baldock, came away with the win after landing a no-handed front flip to bar spin.

After the award’s ceremony, the riders hung around the base of the jump and talked amongst each other, some heading back up the ramp to hit the jump a few more times before calling it a day. The crowd slowly fizzled down to a few stragglers and the first annual 5050 BMX Best Trick competition was in the books.